Sunday, September 27, 2009

I've commented many times about how Microsoft runs their business like a car company ... throwing out designs and prototypes months (sometimes years) before shipping the actual product. Then that final product usually ends up being radically different from the original concept.

One car company recently went from awesome to completely ugly ... Toyota ... with the 2010 Prius.

This was the concept 2010 Prius:

This is what the actual 2010 Prius looks like:

The wind has been knocked out my sails completely if the following rumor is true ...

Aptera's final production design:

One of the things that drew me to the Aptera was it's radical departure from today's automobile design. This "new design" (if true) is a huge letdown to everyone that has adamantly supported Aptera for the past two years.

Monday, September 21, 2009

This is a cellphone insurance/ warranty fraud issue that is perpetrated by EVERY cellular carrier for the strict purpose of not honoring insurance claims. This isn't an Apple issue at all - even though Apple is stuck having to follow the policy.

Last week, my daughter's Samsung Blackjack II stopped charging. I took it into the AT&T store and asked that the $4.99 per month insurance cover the issue ... the salesperson took the battery cover off of the phone and said, "Oopsy the liquid sensor has been tripped, you'll have to pay the deductible." The deductible is $50.00. That makes the total cost of this phone in the 6 moths she's had it $684.20 (unsubsidized).

This isn't the first Samsung (or other cell phone) that I've had this happen ...

In March, I wanted to switch my wife from Verizon to an iPhone on AT&T under my account. She had a nice Samsung Alias phone that was in pretty good condition. I had a number of extra chargers and a Samsung branded bluetooth headset for it. Expecting to get $100.00 + for it and use the money towards the iPhone purchase, I took it to a local "Buy/Sell/Trade/Repair Cellphone Shop" called Hybrid Wireless in Greenville, South Carolina. The first thing they said was, "We can't take this, the water sensor has been tripped." - with the cap on, he pointed with a sharpie marker showing me a tiny sticker just above the battery that he said was suppose to be solid white. Instead, it had little pink crosses on it.

I've had two other cellphones with AT&T; a Nokia flip phone and an HP Smartphone. I never dropped either of them in water, never had them in the shower or in a steamy locker room ... just maybe a normal humid day in South Carolina ... EVERY day! Both stickers were pink inside these phones too - dramatically reducing their value for resale and voiding their warranties.

Friday, September 18, 2009

It's a good read ... especially now that I've finally combined the whole story.

A few notes:

• Remember ... there's NO SUCH THING as a no cancellation policy if the goods or services were never delivered as contracted.

• There have been MANY class actions against Together Dating and they have NEVER WON any of them.

• One of the best things you can do to help others with their problems (and possibly help yourself) is report your local Together to the BBB.

• I have been contacted by multiple attorneys in the 1.5 years since this has been posted ... This is just my thoughts, but I have a feeling Together is about to be investigated by the FTC for deceptive practices.

• Know that Together finds people and chooses people to be involved (they recruit them) ... usually from other low cost dating websites. You will usually do about the same if you pay $15-$30 a month for Yahoo Personals or MATCH.COM. Together actually uses these services to increase their "pool" so to speak.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Last week, I got an "eBay magazine" in the mail ... sent from eBay telling me how to "optimize my sales".

It had a number of sellers with brief quotes about how they "liked" the new eBay changes.

I emailed one of the sellers "mentioned in the magazine" ... he said his actual email to eBay was far different and that he had sprinkled his posting with positive statements to get his point across - saying, "...a totally critical message usually falls on deaf ears."

One thing that the story mentions is that sellers are complaining about their auction pages not rendering correctly after eBay enhanced its look. A lot of the "problem" is being blamed on sellers browsers - and - I'm sure you can guess - that anything besides Internet Explorer 7 or higher in Windows XP or higher is being blamed for the problems.

The changes implemented since 2007 have made eBay a miserable place for the "at home seller" ... eBay was more or less an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind of thing. The ONLY change that needed to be made was lower prices and a negative feedback escrow that I've mentioned here.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

I wanted to have a more personal website where I could discuss local issues ... in my hometown of Liberty SC.

I've kept a journal since I was in 5th grade (10 years old) ... when I was told to start keeping this journal by a family court judge at the end of my parent's divorce, I backdated it to when I was 5 with a few stories from when I was younger.

I found the press release honest and forthcoming ... but the constant complainers managed to see negatives.

From the press release:

We know that iPhone users will embrace MMS. The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end.

We’re riding the leading edge of smartphone growth that’s resulted in an explosion of traffic over the AT&T network. Wireless use on our network has grown an average of 350 percent year-over-year for the past two years, and is projected to continue at a rapid pace in 2009 and beyond. The volume of smartphone data traffic the AT&T network is handling is unmatched in the wireless industry. We want you to know that we’re working relentlessly to innovate and invest in our network to anticipate this growth in usage and to stay ahead of the anticipated growth in data demand, new devices and applications for years to come.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

"... analyst David Eller asserted in a research note this morning that sales of the Pre “are continuing to slow,” and “likely will come in dramatically below” Sprint’s (S) reputed target of 1 million to 1.5 million customers for the year. Eller now sees the company selling 416,000 units in the August quarter overall, down from a previous estimate of 488,000. For the November quarter, Eller expects the company to ship 785,000 units."

The confusion between sell-in and sell-through continues.

In the piece above from Barron's Tech Trader Daily Blog, the terms SELL IN & SELL THROUGH are used interchangeably. Sell-in units are sales by Palm to those who sell to end-users (IE Best Buy/Sprint Stores/Radio Shack), Sell-through units are sales to end-users (IE You, Me, Shoppers, Corporations).

The 416,000 is a sell-THROUGH rate, the 700,000+ is a sell-in rate.

Palm sold-IN somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 LAST quarter ... they sold-through none at all.

Because of worldwide demand for the Apple iPhone - "sell through rates" for the iPhone at retailers are nearly neck and neck with Apple's "sell in rates".

This means there was still a glut of Pre's lying around at retailers.

When I went into a Sprint Store last month, the sales associate, in a dead store, in a busy area, hadn't seen but about 3 sales a week.

I see an iPhone at least 3 times a day and I take notice of just about everyone's phone nowadays and usually even discuss their phone with them if we have more than 10 seconds together ... agree with John Gruber of Daring Fireball from yesterday ...

"Anecdotally, I haven’t seen a single Pre in use in real life."

The Pre isn't stoking demand for Sprint as much as anticipated.

The iPhone, even with the mass attack on AT&T service, is generating an enormous influx of users for AT&T.

For single line plans under $59.99 and pooling plans under $89.99, overage rates increase to $.45. All other single and pooling plans increase to $.40. The rate increase amounts to what is known as a "materially adverse change of contract," which, under standard contract law, voids the original agreement, making it so customers can leave their cellphone contract without the usual early termination penalty.

... they may say things to you like, "you have to have had overage charges recently for the change to affect you". Or,"that based on your plan history, the change won't effect you." That's not how materially adverse changes work. It's if it could effect you.

If you need it, here is the relevant paragraph from the T-mobile contract to read:

Changes to the Agreement or Charges. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY LAW, IF WE: (A)INCREASE THE CHARGES INCLUDED IN YOUR MONTHLY RECURRING ACCESS RATE PLAN, OR (B) MODIFY A MATERIAL TERM OF OUR AGREEMENT WITH YOU AND THE MODIFICATION WOULD BE MATERIALLY ADVERSE TO YOU, WE WILL NOTIFY YOU OF THE INCREASE OR MODIFICATION AND YOU CAN CANCEL THAT SERVICE WITHOUT PAYING A CANCELLATION FEE (WHICH IS YOUR ONLY REMEDY) BY FOLLOWING THE CANCELLATION INSTRUCTIONS IN THE NOTICE. IF YOU DO NOT CANCEL YOUR SERVICE BY FOLLOWING THOSE INSTRUCTIONS, OR YOU OTHERWISE ACCEPT THE CHANGE, THEN YOU AGREE TO THE INCREASE OR MODIFICATION, EVEN IF YOU PAID FOR SERVICE IN ADVANCE. IF THE NOTICE DOES NOT SAY HOW LONG YOU HAVE TO CANCEL, THEN IT IS WITHIN 14 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF THE NOTICE, UNLESS A LONGER PERIOD IS REQUIRED BY LAW. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY LAW, CHARGES FOR PRODUCTS, SERVICES, OPTIONAL SERVICES, OR ANY OTHER CHARGES THAT ARE NOT INCLUDED IN YOUR MONTHLY RECURRING ACCESS RATE PLAN (SUCH AS DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE, ROAMING, DOWNLOADS, AND THIRD-PARTY CONTENT) ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE, AND IF YOU CONTINUE TO USE THOSE SERVICES, OR YOU OTHERWISE AGREE TO THE CHANGES, THEN YOU AGREE TO THE NEW CHARGES. VISIT OUR WEB SITE, RETAIL LOCATIONS, OR CALL CUSTOMER CARE FOR CURRENT CHARGES.

... eBay paid billions for Skype but didn’t get the crown jewels, a.k.a. the technology. I reported this oversight back in 2005. How then-CEO Meg Whitman signed off on the deal, I still can’t understand. I mean, even a lemonade stand owner who can’t tie his shoelaces wouldn’t overlook something as simple as that. And what about the eBay executives who were shepherding that deal?

Meg Whitman abandoned eBay just as things were about to get bad ... really bad.

eBay, as a friendly online yard sale, is long gone. It's turned into a place where sellers from Hong Kong can fence things through customs without paying duties and a place where hoardes of buyers armed with ruining your business without recourse or complication congregate.

It's obvious that eBay has been making bad decisions for 5+ years. This is one of many things to come.

See where eBay bought and sold another unrelated to its core business called "StumbleUpon" here: